Sacred Citadel is a pretty decent beat 'em up, and one of the best of its genre in XBLA.

Graphics and animations are well crafted and cool to watch.
Story is silly but still funny, although it seems to have little to do with the other Sacred games.
Gameplay is pretty solid, there are plenty of combos to unlock during the game, all of them mixing the X and Y buttons, these make upSacred Citadel is a pretty decent beat 'em up, and one of the best of its genre in XBLA.

Graphics and animations are well crafted and cool to watch.

Story is silly but still funny, although it seems to have little to do with the other Sacred games.

Gameplay is pretty solid, there are plenty of combos to unlock during the game, all of them mixing the X and Y buttons, these make up for the basic 3-hit combo that the players are forced to use early in the game, making things less repetitive and more dynamic. Also, the evade/roll is one of the most useful moves in the game, especially during boss fights.

The loot system is great too, letting you choose which weapon to replace on the fly, using the bumper buttons, helps keeping the fast pace of the game.

There's an item shop, which helps those players who let their co-op partners pick up all the good items first (believe me, this happens quite a lot, especially if you're playing with strangers).

Overall, this game is a great addition to the XBLA library, specially the beat 'em up one, which have failed to provide good games since the 2010's awesome Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
If you are a fan of beat 'em ups, rpg elements and looting like Castle Crashers, go buy this one!!…Expand

Upon first discovery of this game my enthusiasm ran high. A new, side-scrolling hack and slash RPG with loot elements? Fresh, crisp looking graphics with a customizable character? It's a Sacred Game and Deep Silver has a hand in it?? yes. I was excited.
As a pretty big fan of side scrolling brawlers going as far back as; Streets of Rage (2 especially), Battletoads,Sacred Citadel:

Upon first discovery of this game my enthusiasm ran high. A new, side-scrolling hack and slash RPG with loot elements? Fresh, crisp looking graphics with a customizable character? It's a Sacred Game and Deep Silver has a hand in it?? yes. I was excited.
As a pretty big fan of side scrolling brawlers going as far back as; Streets of Rage (2 especially), Battletoads, Golden Axe, etc.. and the Sacred series in general.. the merge sounded like... pure. journalistic. dynamite. Side Scrolling Sacred I thought.
And if I remember correctly Deep Silver was also involved with Risen which was a great Gothic "sequel" so it's all on point!

Well I was mistaken. Sorry but it just ain't worth the money for the Microsoft Points.

Graphics: Cartoony graphics are great and all. But for me they just are not cutting it with Sacred Citadel. I would have loved to see realistic graphics over this menagerie of broad strokes, smooth edged, just downright bland graphical style lacking much of anything for the eye to lock on to. Sacred Citadel does have the look of a pretty painting at times however.

Streets of Rage was cartoonish. Yet it was drawn with a certain amount of realism. The characters in Streets of Rage, all the way back then, also felt like they had... weight. Yes, weight. In Sacred Citadel it feels as though when your character runs, they are floating on the game world but not standing in it. Dust clouds were added at your feet with some scarce footsteps but it ain't enough.
Except for when out of combat where the game goes just straight up 2D and you jump chasms or up cliff faces, boxes, and the like. Things handle fine there.

Combat: Mash X,Y and occasionally B. Things light on fire and freeze, or turn green. All pretty effects but just really being splashed around, busying up the screen. Though that isn't necessarily all bad. Some decently cool looking weapons for your char and the big enemies really are what's good.

Oh and the loot? Well yes, as enemies are killed they drop new swords, axes, etc. to slay foes.
Meh. It's a bunch of crap where the armor doesn't even change the appearance of the character? Just some numbers that i figure you can grind for to raise. Could have been left out altogether. Same as the crystals which have a time limit; further adding to needless micro management. However the idea of filling my defense and magic char stats as my Mage levels up, growing in power, is satisfying.

The story, whatever it is, was implemented in such a style that it was placed there to be skipped. All I can figure is sometimes it's there to stop the flow of game, making the game take slightly longer to beat, and being a good "tap A" workout routine.

Sound: Some old school gamer sounding riffs for chopping to, and some transient laid back melody to shop to in town. Sound effects are standard. Sound acting that is very easily skippable. It's a perfect blend of mediocrity. OK title screen tune as well.

Multiplayer: Yes it's there and should be mandatory with any game of the genre!! I'm glad the multiplayer is here, really I am, but if they put this game out without multiplayer I wouldn't touch it.
Bastion...smh. Torchlight... smh. Deathspank?! ....local co-op crap.

Finally then, with the underlying fact of the 1200 microsoft point price tag and the horrible xbox feature that without an internet connection all I can play is the demo, I'd say..
Save that scratch$$!!™
Unless maybe you got 2 other people willing to buy the game as well and can synchronize times to play through together....

There are a lot of things just not good enough in Sacred Citadel. The humor is terrible, and the enemies lack variety. But if you are planning a game night with some friends, there is still some fun to be had with this game. Plug some extra controllers in, switch your brain of and start mashing buttons.